Slow Telephone Response

I have been trying to get a phone conversation with Chase and Marriott Rewards to answer a question on the new credit card. I have been on hold for over 15 minutes before either hanging up on Chase and Marriott finally answered after 18 minutes.

I believe there have been some other threads that have beat this topic to death, but yes, I agree that phone support has taken an abrupt and horrible turn for the worse. The few times in the past I had to call in for help (on the old Marriott Gold line) the support was fantastic from people who were very polite, knew what they were doing, and really wanted to help. The phone was answered immediately each time.

A month or two ago when I had a couple questions, it was a terrible experience. I called three times. First time the auto-attendant misunderstood me and transferred me to the wrong queue, so I had to hang up. Second time I waited about 12 minutes before the system hung up on me without anyone answering. The final time it was about 15 minutes before someone answered. He was polite, but didn't know the answer to my question. He put me on hold to ask. After several minutes on hold I was hung-up on without anyone ever answering the phone again. At that point I just gave up.

It's really a shame. I'm hoping when the dust settles from the merger things go back to normal, but I suspect they tried to cut costs merging their two call centers and this will be the new normal.